Sunday, 22 September 2013

The European Union Times

Navy Yard Shooting: SWAT Team Ordered to ‘Stand Down’

Posted: 19 Sep 2013 05:26 AM PDT

Elite tactical team responsible for defending DC Capitol complex were reportedly ordered to leave the scene.
According to a BBC report, one of the most heavily armed police teams, assigned with the task of protecting the Capitol complex and responsible for responding to threats of terrorism, was ordered to stand down in response to Monday’s shooting at the Naval Sea Systems Command Headquarters building in D.C.
The Containment and Emergency Response Team (CERT), is highly trained and equipped with the best gear on the market. The team consists of four men and is responsible for safeguarding the Capitol complex.
The specialty unit is the department’s elite tactical team assigned with the task of “dealing with the rise in terrorist actives being directed at the US and its citizens,” according to the SpecWarNet.net.
“Since there won’t be time to call for assistance in the event a terrorist is ever able to execute an attack against the Capitol, their [CERT] primary mission consists of rescuing Congressional members, their staff, and visitors who have been taken hostage by terrorists.”
“Secondary missions include, countering threats made against dignitaries, responding to critical incidents and providing security for major events, such as the Presidential Inauguration,” says the website.
Reports confirm that although the team arrived on the scene shortly after news spread of an active shooter situation at the Navy Yard, several Capitol Police team members say they were told by a watch commander to leave the scene.
The sources spoke anonymously to BBC in fear of repercussions.
The leader of the officers’ union, Jim Konczos, said the whole purpose of the CERT team is to respond to and handle active shooter situations. The officers, who are specifically trained to be expert marksmen, arrived fully dressed in their tactical gear and armed with HK-416 assault weapons around 9:00 a.m. Monday morning.
BBC’s report reveals that an officer with the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) told the CERT team they were the “only police on the site equipped with long guns and requested their help stopping the gunman.”
However, shortly after the CERT team arrived, they were reportedly told to leave.
“I don’t think it’s a far stretch to say that some lives may have been saved if we were allowed to intervene,” said one Capitol Police source.
“Odds are it might have had a different outcome,” said Konczos. “It probably could have been neutralized.”
One Capitol Police officer who supposedly overheard the request for CERT to stand down felt frustrated by the command.
Spokeswoman for the MPD responded to the allegations saying they were “not true.” The Capitol Police announced Wednesday they are investigating the allegations and plan to pull radio logs from Monday’s incident.
Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Terry Gainer, overseer of the US Capitol Police Department, had the following response: “It’s a very serious allegation and inference to indicate that we were on scene and could have helped and were told to leave. It crushes me if that’s the case.”
The shooting left 13 people dead, including the suspect, Aaron Alexis.
Alexis, 34, was employed by a defense contractor for the Navy and had been issued a “secret” clearance and a common access card (CAC) that enabled him to get into the building.
Officials say they are reexamining the measures used to decide who can be granted such clearances. According to the Washington Post, 4.9 million federal government workers and contractors held such clearances last year.
US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel has ordered the Pentagon to “…conduct a wide-ranging review of the physical security at all US defense installations across the world and of the security clearance process,” reported the BBC.
Source

Random Posts:

Obama’s meeting with Iran president ‘possible,’ US says

Posted: 19 Sep 2013 05:14 AM PDT

White House spokesman Jay Carney

White House spokesman Jay Carney has talked about the possibility of a meeting between US President Barack Obama and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in New York next week.
“It’s possible, but it has always been possible,” Carney said at a press conference on Thursday.
“The extended hand has been there from the moment the president was sworn in,” Carney was quoted as saying by Reuters.
The remarks were made two days after US National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said that there were “currently no plans” for President Obama to meet with President Rouhani on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
“There are currently no plans for the president and President Rouhani to meet at UNGA,” she said.
In an interview with NBC News in Tehran on Wednesday, President Rouhani also did not rule out the possibility of a meeting with President Obama.
“Meeting Barack Obama, the president of the US, is not on the agenda of my trip; of course, depending on the circumstances that come up, everything is possible in the world of politics,” President Rouhani said.
On Wednesday, Carney said Obama believes that the “window of opportunity” is open for diplomacy with Iran over its nuclear program.
He added that the US president has told his Iranian counterpart in an exchange of letters that Washington is ready to resolve the nuclear standoff with Iran diplomatically.
“In his letter the president indicated that the US is ready to resolve the nuclear issue in a way that allows Iran to demonstrate that its nuclear program is for exclusively peaceful purposes,” Carney said.
“The letter also conveyed the need to act with a sense of urgency to address this issue because, as we have long said, the window of opportunity for resolving this diplomatically is open, but it will not remain open indefinitely,” he said.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham also confirmed the exchange of letters on Tuesday.
Obama and Rouhani will both be in New York City next week to attend the United Nations General Assembly.
Source

Iran releases political prisoners, including Sakharov Prize winner Nasrin Sotoudeh

Posted: 19 Sep 2013 04:51 AM PDT

Prominent Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh has been released two years into her six year prison sentence, according to her husband. At least ten more political prisoners have also been reportedly set free.
“It’s not a temporary release, it’s freedom. They put her in a car and dropped her off at the house,” Sotoudeh’s husband Reza Khandan told Reuters from the couple’s home in Tehran.
“We are all so happy from the depths of our hearts. But we are waiting for the last [political] prisoner to leave prison,”
Sotoudeh was arrested in 2010 and later convicted on charges of spreading propaganda and endangering state security. Her sentence was initially for eleven years, but was subsequently shortened to six on appeal.
50-year old Sotoudeh had defended prominent opposition politicians prior to her detention, as well as taking on numerous human rights cases in the Islamic theocracy. She served her term in Tehran’s Evin Prison, and was designated a prisoner of conscience by leading international advocacy groups.
Sotoudeh was awarded the prestigious Sakharov Prize for defending human rights last year.
Among other inmates unexpectedly released on Wednesday was former deputy foreign minister Mohsen Aminzade.
The reformist politician was a key figure in the failed Green Revolution following the presidential elections in 2009, and was jailed in a subsequent crackdown on the same charges as Sotoudeh.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who has replaced Mohamed Ahmadinejad as president after winning the election in June, promised to release political prisoners and to loosen social controls in the Islamic Republic during his election campaign.
Iranian overtures
But the gesture is also likely timed to coincide with Tehran’s drive to patch up its relations with the West, and troubled issues surrounding Iran’s expanding nuclear program.
In recent days Obama and Rouhani have exchanged letters, and the US leader said that his counterpart had “reached out” to him. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has ultimate authority in the country’s affairs, has also called for “heroic leniency” over the issue of nuclear weapons.
While Iran is unlikely to halt its nuclear program altogether – which it insists is not aimed at producing weapons – it may seek the lifting of international sanctions that have left Iran in isolation, and its economy under pressure.
Earlier this week an official Iranian Twitter feed stated that Rouhani will personally speak to UK foreign secretary William Hague during the upcoming UN assembly in New York.
On Wednesday, Iranian parliamentary Reza Hodjat-Shamami also told Russian media that Rouhani and Obama may have an “accidental” encounter on the sidelines at the UN.
If that were to happen, it would be the first time that a US and Iranian leader have faced each other directly since the Iranian Revolution in 1979.
In contrast, Rouhani’s predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made his international reputation with a series of strident speeches at the UN that were often followed by walk-outs from the US, Israeli and other Western delegations.
Source